NU members demand new party

SURABAYA: The East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) will propose that the country's largest Muslim organization establish a new political party to accommodate the interests of its members.

Chapter chairman Ali Maschan Moesa said on Monday that the demand emerged during a meeting of 45 NU branches across the province late last month, which also discussed the agenda they would raise at the NU congress in Surakarta at the end of November.

Ali said the NU members expressed disappointment with the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was founded by NU clerics in 1998, for failing to heed the aspirations of the grass roots during the presidential election. The PKB backed Wiranto in the first round of the election and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the runoff.

Aside from the PKB, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Nahdlatul Ummah Indonesian Party (PNUI) are political parties with House of Representative seats that claim to represent the NU. -- JP